If you have ever sat and watched a play, you may not know or understand all the hard work and dedication that goes into just one scene and that includes all the people who are behind the curtains.
According to NYU, one of the largest performing arts schools in America, drama in education is “a specialization that privileges make-believe play as significant learning medium.” Drama in Education (DiE) allows the student to improve themselves as more than just a student, but as a productive person in society. DiE gives students skills that will last the rest of their lives.
One of the biggest skills a student can take away from drama classes is communication. Sometime today when you have the chance, on some scratch piece of paper write down the first 10 things you do every morning. Most likely during those you are communicating with someone or something, whether it is a family member, pet, religious figure, or with yourself. Even when you don’t open your mouth you’re still communicating with the people around you. My mom likes to use the phrase “Your eyes speak for themselves” Because our bodies are a huge part of communication, of how we nonverbally communicate. When you’re looking at your friends from across the classroom and you roll your eyes. Aren’t you just showing how bored and annoyed you are without speaking? As an actor/actress you must quickly learn how to portray a character’s emotions and what’s going on in their head without saying it. I’d hate going to plays if the actors on stage yelled stuff like “I am annoyed by what you’re saying” During “Play On” we had the character do a lot of eye-rolling and exaggerated forms of annoyance when certain characters would appear. Drama helps with a lot more than just communication though.
American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) states student who participate in drama “scored on average 65.5 points higher on verbal tests and 35.5 higher on math tests, which shows improvement in problem solving and critical thinking. Students that take a performing arts class see an improvement in their other academic classes. AATE also states that “students who participate in the arts are 3 times more likely to win an award for attendance.” Missing days while trying to practice and get ready for a production is one of the worst things you can do. If one character, lights or sound operator misses then someone must read their lines or work that person’s tech station. During one of Valwood’s last productions “Play On” during the class is when we would run our lines and practice in groups, out of the 4-5 weeks we had to be prepared only about 6-7 of those days did we have everyone there. Since there were no main characters, we had to scramble on days when we were missing an actor/actress.
Dr. Jo Beth Gonzales is a theatre teacher at Bowling Green High School in Ohio for about 20 years now, she said in an interview “Drama may be the most successful portal for creating a safe place for honest dialogue among young people” and I completely agree with her. I have made so many amazing friends at Valwood because of drama and I have been more willing to open myself up to these girls. Some of the plays we have done also bring so much more awareness to issues that are on the rise. In 2016, the suicide rate of an adolescent between the age of 15 and 24 was 13.15%; that’s a substantial number. I helped direct a play that involved 5 girls; it was all about mental and physical issues that a teen faces every single day: depression, anxiety, peer pressure, and the death of family members. This play really hit home for me because I have struggled with depression for a few years now, and in a small school like Valwood, students aren’t exposed to the type of pain, like the suicidal death of a friend. And plays like “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” help make people more socially aware and help bring students closer together.
Here, especially, the performing arts are extremely underfunded or not funded at all, when it takes $6,000 to put on one performance, you need the boost. Smaller schools like Brooks County High School, put most of their funds towards sports, leaving no money left for other classes and extracurriculars. In my Spanish class, we used a book that was published in 1978. Instead of pushing money towards a sports team that can be self-funding such as football use that money for the arts where it’s practically impossible to do a play from ticket sales unless there’s no set pieces or costumes needed. How much do you think a Cinderella costume may cost? I bet you can’t guess the price. This dress alone would cost you nearly $300 dollars, that’s without the shoes, the wig and other accessories you may need. In other means, a drama program should have a given budget of at least enough to do 2-3 shows a year. If not, then it will be extremely hard for that program to be successful.
A student should have the choice to take the class if it’s something they absolutely have no interest in if there are other art classes, like music and 2D or 3D art, and drama shouldn’t just be a filler elective. You then get students who want to play around and purposefully screw things up as a joke.